The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Pierce Bainbridge

Posts tagged “Scotland”

The case of the day is Savage v. Zelent (N.C. Ct. App. 2015). Alan Savage and Julie Anne Zelent lived together as a couple in Scotland. They eventually separated, and Zelent moved to North Carolina. She sued Savage in the Inverness Sheriff’s Court under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, claiming that she was entitled to support from him. After a trial, the Sheriff found that Zelent was not entitled to contribution. Zelent did not appeal. Zelent’s counsel withdrew from the representation, which under the governing procedure meant that a peremptory diet—a kind of hearing— had to be held. The hearing was held, but Zelent did not appear despite receiving notice. In her absence, as permitted by Scots law, the Sheriff awarded Savage his…

Judge Hillman has denied Alexander Hilton’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, in which Hilton had challenged a magistrate judge’s decision that he could be extradited to the United Kingdom to face trial on charges of the attempted murder of Robert Forbes, a fellow student at St. Andrews University. I covered the petition here and the government’s response to the petition here. The decision was more or less as expected. Hilton had argued that Scots criminal procedure, specifically the rule allowing a majority jury verdict rather than requiring a unanimous verdict, would violate his due process rights. The judge held that under the rule of non-inquiry, the court could not inquire into the fairness of criminal procedure in Scotland; such questions are for…

The government has replied to the Hilton habeas corpus petition that I discussed last month. This, recall, is the case of Alexander Hilton, accused of attempted murder in Scotland. In the initial proceedings for certification of extraditability, Hilton made two unsuccessful arguments: first, he cannot be extradited to Scotland because under Scots law he could be found guilty by the verdict of a majority of the jury; and second, his mental illness would make extradition impermissible. In my first post, I suggested that the majority verdict issue was a non-starter, and unsurprisingly, the government agrees, though in terms stronger than I used in my post. On the government’s view, the courts have no role to play in questions about the adequacy of the procedural…